


I Wanna Ruin Our Friendship

by rebeccaofsbfarm



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Social Media, TikTok, tiktok challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:21:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27984498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebeccaofsbfarm/pseuds/rebeccaofsbfarm
Summary: Our favorite idiots try everyones’ new favorite TikTok trend. Feelings ensue.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 31
Kudos: 460





	I Wanna Ruin Our Friendship

**Author's Note:**

> Me: Somebody needs to write this. But not me. I'm busy.  
> Also me: But I needs it.  
> Me: Okay, fine.
> 
> Also for some reason I see them turning into Chris and Ian on couples TikTok. That is all.

Buck is single and unable to mingle. Not with a pandemic on, anyway, which is why he ends up with a TikTok account and a few thousand followers. His TikTok is an amalgamation of workout videos, thirst traps, and playful dance videos, not that he does them well. Hen also fell into the TikTok trap, and when she updates the team about his shenanigans every time he comes in for a shift, he doesn’t mind the teasing from his friends. After all, what else is he supposed to do with all that time alone?

Well, _that_ , yes. But he’s done plenty of _that_ in the months since the bars closed.

Eddie, as his best friend, has borne the brunt of his new fixation, getting links from Buck on a daily basis of videos he thinks are funny, or asking his opinion on a risky thirst trap. He sends them via Facebook and Snapchat, because in his old age, Eddie refuses to download the app, but occasionally responds with a brief “lol” or “😂” so Buck knows he watches at least some of what he sends.

It’s a Saturday night, not that those are any different from any other night anymore, and he’s bored in his empty apartment, scrolling endlessly through TikTok looking for something to duplicate, when he stops on a video showing a series of Snapchat screenshots with the caption, 😬 **#RuinOurFriendshipChallenge**.

He watches as the video goes through a series of selfies, each of them quoting a lyric from the catchy song playing in the background. The lyrics are flirty, and the girl on the screen looks shy as she goes through them. Her friend, who is certainly a gay or a they by the looks of it, seems to respond with optimistic surprise. The last image is of the two of them together, their chaste kiss obscured by a Snapchat filter and a sticker, but obviously successful. He’s happy for them, but watching them alone in his empty apartment only underscores how unrealistic his envy is.

He decides that maybe he’s had enough TikTok for the evening, especially now that he seems to have landed on couples’ TikTok, but before he closes out, he copies the link and sends it to Eddie with the comment, “okay, this is cute.” He’s not sure why. Maybe he’s just looking for an excuse to text him that wouldn’t seem unreasonable for this time of night. He gets in bed pretty early, settling in with a true crime podcast, but he’s distracted thinking of the challenge. He did tell himself he was going to post something tonight.

Later, he’ll blame the glass of bourbon he finished hours before for what he does next, but the truth is that he sobered up long ago. He turns on his bedside lamp so that the light casts over his features, enough to be seen on the camera when he pulls up Snapchat. He tells himself that he and Eddie have had a playful flirtation for years with nothing behind it, so one little late-night conversation won’t do anything irreversible to their relationship.

With this in mind, he turns on his side, taking a photo of his face pressed against the pillow, a smile playing at his lips, and types, _Eddie darlin’ you’re my best friend_.

He sends it to Eddie, expecting nothing because it’s late and Chris usually tires him out earlier than this. He’s surprised when he gets a notification, and he tries to ignore the exhilaration that chases through his abdomen as he opens the snap.

Eddie is in bed too, but flat on his back, his hair mussed, and his eyebrow raised in confusion, _Darlin’? Okay BABY, you’re my best friend too._

Buck wonders if Eddie’s seen the video he sent, whether he’s playing along or just as confused as his expression lets on. Rather than ask him, he soldiers on.

 _But there’s a few things that you don’t know of..._ He sends the next line over a photo of himself lying flat on his back, his eyes darting suspiciously out of the frame.

The next picture is of Eddie squinting, _Is that even grammatically correct? What are you talking about?_

 _Why I borrow your lipstick so often_ , he types, knowing this if nothing else will tip Eddie off to the joke. He purses his lips into a pout like he’s about to kiss the screen, then adds some Xs for good measure.

Eddie doesn’t even bother with a real picture this time, just a photo of his ceiling with a series of question marks. Buck ignores the bubbly feeling in his gut, taking another picture against his pillow, biting his lip, with the text, _I’m using your shirt as a pillowcase_.

 _My shirt? Why do you have my shirt?_ Eddie asks him, peeking out from behind an arm draped over his face. His brows are still knit together with confusion, but he hasn’t told Buck to fuck off yet, which is a good sign.

He might with this one though, because Buck has gone full pillow princess, laid out against his pillows and grinning with heat behind his eyes, then holds his breath as he types, _I wanna ruin our friendship..._

There’s no reason his blood should be pumping this hard, he tells himself. He’s just fucking with Eddie. It’s just a joke. So why does it feel like his heart is trying to burst out of his chest? He nearly jumps when Eddie responds, having to take a deep breath before he opens the snap.

 _Ruin it how?_ Eddie asks, and where Buck’s eyes belay the heat behind them, Eddie’s dark eyes are full of vulnerability, just on the edge of admitting something that Buck needs to chase down. Against his better judgment, he needs to satisfy his curiosity, so he lets his eyes go a little softer, a little more open, and then he sends the snap.

_We should be lovers instead…_

He swears he’s going to choke on the thudding of his own heartbeat, and it’s only his reckless courage that keeps him from tossing the phone across the room so he doesn’t have to see Eddie’s response. His heart stutters when he gets another picture of the ceiling, the caption just one word. _Buck..._

He takes a selfie without much thought, but when he sees his own eyes looking back at him, he thinks they may betray how invested he is in what had begun as a joke. He needs to know if Eddie is messing around with him too. He types blindly, before sending, _I don’t know how to say this, ‘cause you’re really my dearest friend…_

This time, Eddie doesn’t bother taking a snap, just chats him two rushed lines.

_Say what?_

_Buck, if you’re fucking with me, I need you to tell me right now._

And the truth is, he had been, but this moment also feels expectant, like it has a potency that he’d never before considered. He mulls over the implications, for too long it seems, because then Eddie is calling him over FaceTime.

“Hey,” Buck answers, and he’s mad that it comes out gravely with disuse, sounding exactly like the bedroom voice he shouldn’t have. “I’m sorry for freaking you out.”

“So it was a joke?” Eddie asks, and his voice is a mixture of relief and...disappointment? “Oh thank god. It’s too late for me to try and puzzle out what you were trying to do, but you really had me going for a second there.”

“Didn’t you watch the video I sent you?” Buck asks, purposely not confirming that he hadn’t meant anything by the messages.

“Was it tonight?” Eddie asks, before admitting, “Honestly, I don’t click on most of those links Buck. You send _a lot_ of them.”

That at least answers one question for him. He tries to explain casually, “Well, yeah, I guess it would be confusing without context. It’s a TikTok challenge. You text your crush the lyrics to this song to see how they respond, but a lot of people are using it just to fuck with people.”

“Using me for clout again, huh?” Eddie asks teasingly, his eyes soft and sleepy as he runs a hand through his hair. Buck usually doesn’t get to see him this close. His eyes are almost black in his dark room, crinkly in the corners with sleep. His quiet admiration of Eddie’s features only does more to confuse the strange feelings welling up in his gut. “Whatever makes you happy Buck. Just maybe next time you can give me a heads up that doesn’t include clicking a link as a prerequisite?”

“I can do that,” Buck chuckles, his smile not quite traveling to his eyes. He can already feel himself tumbling into confusion, trying to parse out what this nervous feeling in his stomach is about. “I didn’t actually ruin our friendship, did I?”

“It’d take more than a few rogue snaps to do that. A lawsuit maybe…” Eddie teases him, which is fair for the conflicted night he’s had.

“Okay, okay,” Buck interrupts, feigning a yawn to get off the phone before he can be reminded of more of his flaws. “I’m sorry if I weirded you out. Is it still cool if I post the video?”

“Yeah, whatever. Be careful, or your followers might start liking me more than you,” Eddie teases, before peeking at the time. “Shit, it’s late. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Night, Eds,” he answers before he puts the phone to bed for the night, facedown on his nightstand. 

He expects to fall asleep quickly, but without his phone as a distraction, his thoughts begin to circle the drain. It doesn’t take him long to realize that he’d triggered something, his mind racing with the implications of what he feels. He spends nearly an hour calling up the image of Eddie’s face, the mix of relief and disappointment, and he feels a sense of it himself. Relief that things don’t have to change, and disappointment that they won’t.

When had these feelings snuck up on him? People had been making fun of their closeness for years. He was used to people telling both of them they should get married to excuse the fact they were already basically co-parenting Christopher, but they had both laughed along with them because the idea was ridiculous.

So why, all of a sudden, does he wonder what it would be like to lie next to Eddie in his bed and see those sleepy brown-almost-black eyes up close? What would it be like to use his shirt as a pillowcase, and could he do so with Eddie still _wearing_ the shirt? Oh fuck. Oh fuck. _Oh fuck._

Trying to draw his focus away from his spiraling thoughts, he grabs his phone again and pulls up TikTok, quickly editing together the screenshots. He feels the anticipation anew as he watches the images loop, the dangerous game they’re playing clear as day when he focuses in on their eyes.

_Buck…_

He posts the video before he can think better of it, then tosses his phone aside once again, and squeezes his eyes shut. He resorts to counting sheep in his desperation, but loses count multiple times, distracted by the phantom image of the heat behind his own eyes in his snaps. He hadn’t been faking it, had he? At that moment, he’d felt something, something real and distinctly un-platonic toward Eddie. He’d wanted to reach through the phone and press his lips to the crinkle of his forehead, and then maybe his lips too. Which is a shock to say the least. Since when does he want to kiss Eddie?

He finally admits defeat, realizing that it’s no use trying to sleep with his thoughts so in flux, and he starts by pacing across his bedroom, then moves downstairs to circle the kitchen a few hundred times, before finally grabbing his keys and throwing on a pair of slides on his way to his car. It’s always easier to think while driving around, and it’s the middle of the night, so the roads are nearly deserted. As he drives with no particular direction or plan, he tries to reach a conclusion about his feelings, something concrete that he can either act on or repress, depending on what he comes to, but all he does is muddy the waters with memories he’d never before colored with the possibility of _more_.

He remembers that moment after the tsunami, when he’d finally found Christopher wrapped in Eddie’s arms, and he wanted to wrap his arms around both of them, kiss their hair until he really believed they were all okay. Instead he had collapsed, and when he came to it was Maddie that greeted him, and he had to pretend he wasn’t disappointed.

And the moment Eddie rescued himself from the sinkhole. He certainly could have kissed him then. At the time it felt celebratory, grateful that he was alive, but now Buck wondered if it was a feeling of grounding, like he had to remind himself that Eddie was still here and alive and _vital_. But then Hen and Chim had swooped in to get him warm, Buck was pushed aside, and he never did kiss him.

God, does he want to now.

He’s stunned when he glimpses at the clock on his dashboard and realizes that over an hour has passed. He has no idea where he’s been or where he’s going, until he glances at the neighborhood he’s in and realizes instantly that he must have taken a rather circuitous route to Eddie’s. It’s nearly three in the morning, and the lights are out in all the windows, but now that he’s here, he can’t bear to turn around and leave.

He talks himself up and back down again, trying to convince himself to just go home and let Eddie sleep, but like his autopilot brought him here, suddenly he’s halfway across the lawn, and then he’s using his spare key to let himself in the front door, disarming and rearming the security system before heading down the hall toward Eddie’s room.

He knows that Eddie usually leaves the door to his bedroom cracked so that he can hear Christopher if he needs him, so he isn’t surprised when he finds the door slightly ajar. Buck nudges the door with his foot, widening the gap so he can see clearly into the room. He’s unsure what the protocol is for sneaking into your best friend’s house in the middle of the night, so he knocks against the frame of the door and waits for Eddie to stir.

“Chris?” Eddie grumbles, turning toward the door to search out a figure in the darkness. When he sees the shadow of a man twice the size of his son, he jumps into action, flipping on his bedside light and looking near-homicidal before he realizes who it is. “What the _fuck_ , Buckley! I could have killed you!”

“I, uh, used my spare,” he stutters dumbly, heart racing as Eddie finally starts to relax again, his hackles up like a rabid dog.

“That much is obvious. And I might just make you return it if you ever do that again,” Eddie grumbles, shifting to the edge of the bed and sitting up. “Jesus, Buck. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“Sorry,” Buck answers quietly, and he wishes he knew what he came here to say, but standing in front of Eddie again, the words fail him. It doesn’t help that he’s distracted by the same sleepiness hinted at in Eddie’s snaps, his disheveled hair and his sleepy, smiley eyes. Not quite so smiley now, but still somehow amused by Buck’s antics.

Eddie gropes for his phone on the bedside table, lighting it up to see the time, “Do you have any idea what time it is? This better be an emergency.”

“Like a life-threatening emergency?” Buck hedges, met with a glare from Eddie. “I would say it’s more of a full-blown existential crisis than an emergency.”

With a long-suffering sigh Eddie gets out of bed. He bodily moves Buck out of the doorway so he can get to the kitchen, where he drops a pod into the coffee machine and lets it run. Buck follows behind him sheepishly, taking a seat at the counter and declining Eddie’s offer of coffee.

He tries to watch him as he prepares his own coffee, but he’s overwhelmed by the newness of what he sees. He swears this wasn’t there yesterday, this pull of _something_ that he can’t put a name to, but now his heart is racing as his eyes travel to the long tears in Eddie’s shirt beneath his arms, exposing swathes of muscle that would feel hard and strong beneath his fingers.

Finally ready with his coffee, Eddie leans against the counter and blows the steam off the top, his lips pursed in a way that reminds him of the hours spent wondering what it would be like to kiss him, forcing Buck to look away before he can do something stupid. Eddie waits for him to explain his presence more fully, but he struggles to find the words, so finally it’s Eddie that asks, “You said you’re having a crisis. Any particular one, or just a general _my life is a wreck_ sort of thing?”

“Both,” he chuckles nervously. He takes a deep breath and squeezes his eyes shut, finding the nerve to rip off the band-aid. “It’s about the snaps I sent you earlier.”

“Is that all this is? I can take a joke, Buck. You’re fine,” Eddie smiles, as if this absolution is enough to solve Buck’s problem. Instead it heightens his fear that he read too far into Eddie’s expression; that these new feelings are not only confusing, but unrequited.

He pushes past the fear, forcing his rushing thoughts to surface, “But that’s just it. Until I fessed up, you didn’t know I was joking. And maybe I’m wrong, but it looked like maybe...maybe you weren’t. And then maybe I wasn’t. I don’t know.”

“Buck, if this is another goddamn TikTok challenge…” Eddie warns.

“Forget about the TikTok challenge!” Buck pleads, leaning against the counter with his intensity. “I’ve spent the night trying to tell myself it didn’t mean anything, but it’s not working. It wasn’t until we agreed how ridiculous it all was that I realized it wasn’t ridiculous at all. I think I have feelings for you, and I have no idea what to do with that information.”

“I can see why that would get you worked up,” Eddie says quietly, thoughtfully, before taking a long drag of his coffee. He tries to mask his emotions, but Buck can see him thinking it over.

“Fuck, Eddie, if I’m the only one that feels this way, tell me and we can forget this whole night ever happened. I’m not even sure I’m lucid right now. But I thought so hard about you, driving around town in the middle of the night, that without even trying to I showed up at your door.”

“To be clear, you ended up at my _bedroom_ door,” Eddie mumbles into the rim of his mug. Once again he avoids answering Buck’s unspoken question. _Do you have feelings for me too?_

Buck’s vulnerability wears his patience, so he finally asks in the form of a yes or no question, desperate to end the suspense, “Is this just me? Am I the only one feeling this?”

Eddie doesn’t answer immediately, grinding his teeth as he stares into the countertop like it holds the answers, but then he shakes his head before looking up, his eyes meeting Buck’s, “You and your fucking TikTok.”

“I know,” Buck grumbles, self-consciously. “I didn’t realize I would _actually_ ruin our friendship.”

“It would take more than that to ruin us, Buck,” Eddie soothes him, and then he sets his mug aside, circling the counter until he stands next to Buck. “And no, you’re not alone. When you sent me that, my first reaction was that we were fucked, that I would have to reject you, and hurt you, and god Buck, I never want to hurt you. And then I thought it was a joke, which it was, and then all of a sudden I was...disappointed. Because it could have been real. And then maybe I wished that it was. Anyway, I didn’t plan on it, and I’m just about as surprised as you are. I’ve never had feelings for a guy before. But then, I’ve never felt about anybody the way I feel about you. That is to say, I’m willing to try.”

“Try?” Buck questions, making sure there’s no room for miscommunication this time. “You mean, see if we can be more than friends?”

“Something like that,” Eddie teases, nudging Buck with his shoulder. Buck looks up at him from his seat, and their nervous chuckles go silent as they feel an unsprung tension build between them. Buck realizes that Eddie is looking directly at his lips, and he knows what happens next.

“Eddie?” he murmurs, and Eddie’s eyes flick up to meet his. “I want to try another TikTok challenge with you.”

The tremor of his voice must betray his seriousness, because Eddie doesn’t argue or deny him, just breathes, “Okay.”

It takes Buck a moment to pull up the sound, and he props up the phone on the counter, his stomach fluttering at the adoring look on Eddie’s face in the frame, patiently waiting for whatever Buck is up to. He sets the timer, before standing to his full height, full-well knowing that Eddie will not recognize the challenge. Once the countdown finishes, the music begins.

_Baby you’re like lightning in a bottle, I can’t let you go now that I’ve got it, and all I need is to be struck by your electric--_

Eddie must know what’s coming, he has to with their sudden closeness, the promise of something about to happen, but when Buck sweeps forward to kiss him, his eyes open wide with shock, before fluttering shut as Buck gathers his face into his hands. Eddie’s arms curl around his waist, and he settles into his hold, allowing Eddie to pull him closer, deepening the kiss.

It really is electric, the way energy pulses between them, zipping from where their lips meet to the tips of his toes. Eddie’s lips are pillowy-soft, and he tastes like the sugared sweetness and forceful strength of his coffee. As his tongue slips between Eddie’s lips, he realizes that it isn’t the coffee he tastes. It’s Eddie.

His knees nearly go out under him, and he’s not sure if it’s entirely the fault of the kiss, or if his adrenaline finally gives out, but Eddie catches him, holding him steady and chuckling softly in the afterglow of kissing. Kissing. That’s a thing they _do_ now.

“Have you slept at all?” Eddie finally asks, though it sounds like he must know the answer, because he begins guiding Buck back down the hallway toward his bedroom. “Come on, this can all wait until morning. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you.”

“I can drive home--” Buck tries to make the token argument, but Eddie stops him, pushing him forward gently through the doorway into his bedroom. He stands beside the bed uselessly as Eddie turns down the bedding on the undisturbed side of his bed for him. The moment he moves aside, Buck collapses into it unceremoniously. The last thing he remembers is Eddie chuckling softly as he lifts the covers over him, tucking him in before leaning over to press his lips to his hair.

“Night, Buck.”

* * *

The next morning, and unfortunately it is _still_ morning, Buck’s memories of the night before return to him slowly. His thoughts are still blurry at the edges as he wakes up, but then he feels strong arms wrapped around him.

His first thought is that he has never before been the little spoon, and damn, he could get used to the safety of another man’s arms. His second thought is that the person wrapped around him is his best friend, and he is feeling less unsettled by that every moment, as he nestles into the warmth of Eddie’s chest.

“You know what I don’t miss?” Eddie grumbles against his shoulder, like they wake like this every morning. _They could_ , he realizes with a start. Just another thing they do now. “When Chris would get me up at five in the morning and insist that we start the day. Now he sleeps past nine and just hangs out unsupervised until I roll out of bed. It’s _delightful_.”

“Are you trying to imply something?” Buck asks, rolling over to face him as Eddie curls his hold across his shoulders, pulling him closer. “Because I hardly think it would be sensible to spend the whole day in bed with your ten year old eating chocolate for breakfast on the other side of the door.”

“Oh, I mean, we’ll get up eventually,” Eddie clarifies, before his grin comes ever closer, and then they’re kissing again, and Buck’s arguments die in his throat, “I’m just saying we can take our time.”

“And what do you suggest we do with all this time?” Buck asks, fingers trailing playfully over Eddie's sides, just as strong and sinewy as he imagined.

“I think I have a few ideas,” Eddie teases, before rolling on top of Buck and kissing him again.

* * *

After nearly an hour of making out like teenagers, finally Eddie rolls over to check his phone, so Buck does the same. When he opens TikTok, he is baffled to find that his video from last night has gone viral. Not the kiss. That video is still saved in his drafts for his own benefit. Just the video of them snapping back and forth.

Nearly every comment asks for a part two, so he hopes Eddie is still high from lack of oxygen, before he turns over enough to ask him, “Uh, would you mind if I made another TikTok?”

“What, right now?” Eddie asks, barely glancing up from his phone. Buck expects him to argue about his appearance, but he doesn’t, which is good, because he looks positively delectable with his hair mussed and his lips swollen. “Why?”

“That original challenge from last night? It’s got over 90,000 likes as of this morning. I’ve got thousands of new followers. They’re asking for an update.”

“You should play it coy,” Eddie encourages him, his mood light. “You’re using me for clout anyway, right? Reply to somebody’s comment with just your face and then scan over to me in the bed with you. Let them figure it out. Bet you’ll get at least another thousand followers from the hype.”

“Not bad for a Luddite,” Buck admits, doing as Eddie says and finding a particularly rowdy comment full of exclamation points. “You gonna look at the camera?”

“I think it’s funnier if I’m ignoring you completely, don’t you?” Eddie smirks, looking deeply engrossed in his phone, but watching Buck from the corner of his eye. Buck agrees, wondering if Eddie might be making more appearances on his TikTok going forward.

He centers his face in the frame, doing his best to look coy and biting his lip, and then he turns the camera until Eddie is in frame, looking properly engrossed in whatever is on his phone. He labels it with a marker that says “Part II” and posts it before setting his phone aside, “Come on. Let’s get up and make lunch. Can’t make Chris fend for himself _all_ day.”

* * *

Eventually, he turns his phone off for the number of notifications he’s getting, both from not one, but two, semi-viral videos, but also from Hen, who spreads the word quickly among their ranks of what he’d posted. There’s a certain air of _finally_ from their friends that he doesn’t want to examine too closely, but he’s easily distracted by spending the day with Eddie and Chris, testing the boundaries of what they are now. It’s not much different than before, but now he reaches for Eddie’s hand across the couch while watching TV, and while he cooks them dinner, he feels strong arms wrap around him from behind, dropping a grateful kiss at the base of his neck. It’s so _easy_ that he barely remembers when it wasn’t like this.

Later that evening, he finally turns his phone back on, heartened by the effect the videos have had on his growing number of followers. Without thinking too much about it, he pulls up the camera again, wanting to be honest with the people who have invested energy into them. He’s played coy long enough.

“Hey everybody, and I mean _everybody,_ wow! I didn’t realize the impact that video would have when I posted it, both on my follower count and on my life. I only have sixty seconds to explain, which isn’t close to enough to explain what Eddie is to me, but first and foremost he is the best friend I’ve ever had. And he still is my best friend. Thankfully, no friendships were ruined in the making of this TikTok. But I guess the real question is, are we more than friends?”

He doesn’t realize Eddie has snuck up behind him until he leans over his shoulder and presses a kiss to his temple, wrapping his arms around his shoulders from behind, “Maybe?”

“Maybe,” Buck confirms, smiling up at Eddie, before turning into him so their lips meet. “If I’m lucky.”


End file.
